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Here and There…Now and Then |
Katydid
I went out into the woods next to my building today and took a few pictures. As I was heading back I came across this Katydid, probably a Pterophylla camellifolia, who flew up onto the trunk of a tree as I approached. He somewhat reluctantly allowed me to get close enough for a few pictures.
I remember Cathy had one of these on her shoulder one time and when she noticed it but before she knew what it was, she totally freaked out. Pretty funny.
Small Cricket
As you walk through a lawn, chances are there are insects jumping away from you much of the time. We often walk through life not noticing things like that. Many of the insects are too small to be of any note. Slightly larger insects, like this cricket, might catch our eye but still not attract much attention. I went out today specifically looking at the little creatures all around and was able to get fairly close to this one before it hopped away. I haven’t had a chance to look it up to get any sort of identification beyond “cricket” but that’s probably good enough for now.
Scudderia Nymph
I noticed this bright green katydid nymph on the canna lily this morning. It is one of the Scudderia species. It let me get pretty close, as you can see and it actually stayed there for a few days and ate a good amount of the petals on this flower. Generally I’m not a fan of flower-eating insects but this one was pretty enough and eating slowly enough that I let it be. I like the green against the orange of the petals and even though it’s a small thing, I could see it clearly from our kitchen door, which was nice.
Melanoplus differentialis (Differential Grasshopper)
We had to drive out to Quince Orchard this morning and since we were already out that way we figured we might as well go somewhere and enjoy being outdoors. We continued out Rt. 28 and then turned onto White Ground Road. We stopped at the Boyds Negro School (1896–1936), across from the Edward Taylor Elementary School. Then we stopped again at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church and Cemetery. After walking around the cemetery a while, we decided to see what the Hoyles Mill Trail was like from where it meets White Ground Road (just across from the Methodist Church) to Little Seneca Lake in Black Hills Regional Park. It was a nice walk, not at all difficult with both woods and some open country, alongside corn fields (which have been harvested). I saw this grasshopper, a differential grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis) and was able to get close enough for a pretty good photo.